Nightclub Crush: New Appeal

A year after two young students died in a crush at Northampton's Lava & Ignite nightclub, police are trying to find 28 people who were there.

They want to speak to the clubbers seen in a photo taken during the crush in the early hours of Wednesday 19 October 2011.

Detective Inspector Louise Hemingway from Northamptonshire Police told Heart: "We've talked to a significant number of people and its not until we've done that that we've recognised that there are a number of people that were in that area that we haven't yet spoken to so we're asking them to come forward.

"What we also recognise is that people may not have felt able to do that last year.

"This was a very traumatic incident I'm sure for those people that were there, there were many acts of bravery people were trying to help people that had fallen over and people may have felt very traumatised.

"So we're now saying to those people that haven't yet spoken to us, please come and talk to us, you may have information that can early help us."

There were around 1,500 people in Lava & Ignite on the night of the 18 October 2011 and early hours of the 19 October.

It was a student event called the Wickedest Wickedest and had attracted students from universities all over the county including those in Buckingham, Hertfordshire and Northampton.

Police have told Heart they are still not sure what it was that caused the rush of people all trying to leave the club at the same time.

There was speculation at the time that it was because of a fire alarm but police have confirmed that the fire service set off the alarm after the crush had already started to help people to disperse.

The crush on the stairway caused the death of 22 year old Nabila Nanfuka and 19 year old Laurene-Danielle Jackson.

Angela Ferdinand and Ronato Jackson, the parents of Laurene-Danielle Jackson, have released a statement appealing directly to those who attended the event:

“We would like to make an appeal to any one of the 28 people who have not yet come forward who attended the Lava & Ignite nightclub in Northampton on the 18th of October 2011.

“As parents of Laurene-Danielle who lost her life we can appreciate how upsetting it must be to re-live the tragedy of that night, but we are urging you to please come forward with any information, no matter how small it may be, so that we can try to understand what happened and why we lost our beautiful daughter.

“If it were you we are sure you would want all the information needed to get some kind of closure. Please imagine if it was you who had lost a daughter, sister, cousin or niece.

“Laurene-Danielle was only 19 and still had a lot to give in her life and we just need to know what happened. There are still a lot of blank pieces that the police need in order to continue their investigation. We do not want Laurene-Danielle’s death to go unanswered.”

For the first time ever, Northamptonshire Police have set up a dedicated Facebook and Twitter page to appeal for witnesses, they can be viewed here: